


Spunk

by H_E_A_R_T_H



Series: The Pendulum Series [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Backstory, Canon Compliant, Child Neglect, Childhood Trauma, F/F, F/M, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Prequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 13:24:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18966124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/H_E_A_R_T_H/pseuds/H_E_A_R_T_H
Summary: Kaida and Kage Watanabe are twins. As they learn to be divination users, they meet Mirajane Strauss, their best and only friend. As she develops due to the horrifying passing of her young sister, Lisanna, Kaida takes on Mirajane's former personality unknowingly.





	Spunk

When I was four I wanted to be just like my mother. She was my hero, she cooked and cleaned until she was swaying on her feet. There was never a moment in time where her hair wasn't done in perfect coils, or her makeup wasn't done so that she looked so effortlessly beautiful. In fact, everything she did seemed to be perfect and effortless to my small eyes.

My twin brother, Kage, felt the same. We got a tutor later in the year, when we were asked what we wanted to be when we were older, we wrote down our mother. We couldn't write words at the time, instead, we drew pictures. Messily scrawled in blue crayon, we drew stick figures of our mother. In my picture, she was bent over scrubbing the floor, and in my brother's, she was serving us food at the table.

"What about your father?" Our tutor asked when we handed in our work. Kage and I didn't answer the question. In fact, we stayed silent a majority of the day following that. We mostly sulked, playing in the dirt moodily.

Less of a hero to us was our father. He worked as a healing mage in a nearby clenic. It's no doubt he's good at what he does, just like our mother. We didn't see him often because of his work. 

He's always been a man that followed the rules by book. When I was only five, he sat me down at the kitchen table alone one night. It was well past midnight, but he was finally home, so he woke me up and brought me into the kitchen.

"What are your plans for the future?" He starts off, his voice firm and eyes like ice. I stare back at him cluelessly. "Go on then, what do you want to be?"

"A... Mom," I tell him slowly and hesitantly, "I want to be a mommy."

"Obviously," He rolls his eyes, getting up from his seat across from me to begin pacing the room. "Every girl will eventually become a mother after getting married. What do you want to do, do you want to be a mage?" There's a pause. My father hasn't ever told me what he does at work, I can't quite know if I want to pursue something like what he does. "Do you admire any guilds, anyone at all? Have you thought anything through?"

I stare down at my hands, folded neatly on my lap, my ankles crossed. I stay silent. My father doesn't like that.

"Go to your room." He tells me, and the topic is left unspoken of. That worries me more than if he yelled at me. I'd much prefer knowing how he felt, not wondering what rage lies inside him.

My father worked from early in the morning and well into the night. His shifts were shorter on the weekends but lengthened the year I turned six. I hadn't thought anything of it at the time.

The year I turned six was toughest for me. Mom died early in the year, days before my birthday. Three days later, on the third of May, Kage and I spend our birthday at our mother's funeral. I wore my mother's old dress and flats, both were too big for me, but I wore it with stubborn pride. My brother wore father's old clothing as well, baggy dress pants and an even looser black button-up shirt. We stood at our father's side as the rain came down on us. Many relatives attend, and I'm sad when they come over to me, telling me they remembered me from when I was very small. I hadn't seen a single one of them recent enough to recall a memory. I wondered as time progressed and when we're going home if they'd just been saying that to make conversation. That they were lying, and I hadn't actually met any of them prior.

I heard whispers whenever I left the house. "That's them," Other children whispered when Kage and I would walk down the street to the forest we liked to play in. "Their mother died, didn't you hear?" 

We heard different variations of this constantly. Our tutor tried their best to talk to us, console us. Kage and I assured them that we are fine. There was no one to worry except them at this point, Kage and I had never had the chance to mingle with anyone our age.

My mother's death was never the same each time a child spoke of it. First, the truth was heard by my neighbour. My mother was going to the grocery and was killed by a wild animal near the forest. The story progressively got worse. Some said she went out to hunt the animal for dinner and died in her attempt. Some don't even bring the animal into the equation, stating a wizard was the one who killed her.

Kage and I hated the rumours. It was an insult to our mother's name. We didn't confront any of the kids about our beliefs, though.

After our mother died, our father continued his late shifts. He replaced our tutor with a nanny, a bright-eyed girl named Akane. She did the same chores as our mother and taught us the same way our old tutor did, but with much more excitement.

At first, Kage and I vowed to hate her. She was trying to fulfill the gap our mother's death left. It's impossible to hate someone like her, believe me.

She was just as perfect as our mother, if not more. Her dark red hair, coiled just like our mother and only a couple shades darker than her own scarlet hair, was held in a large ponytail above her head and reached to her tailbone. Akane's eyes even seemed to have a resemblance to my mother's, brown laced with flecks of gold. My mother's eyes weren't like that, they were brown and didn't seem to expand to any underlying shade. While Akane's glistened like bronze, mother's eyes were like the colour of a crayon, one distinct shade. Even Akane's skin colour rivalled mother's, very dark, completely contrasting my mother's bland ivory complexion.

Everything Akane did was with a grin. She scrubbed the floors, cooked, walked us through our work step by step. Nothing was too tedious. Kage and I grew to like her very much, and our new view for the future was to become nannies for our own children.

"We want to be just like you!" Kage announced as we coloured at the kitchen table, handing Akane the paper. Our colouring wasn't much better from years ago, but now at the riper age of six, it was getting somewhere. On the paper is a drawing of Akane, my brother and I at her sides holding her hands.

"Thank you," She smiles, "I'll hang this on my fridge at my own home, okay?"

Two nights later, we were awoken from our sleep by our father. He ripped off our blankets and demanded we come to the kitchen. From across our shared room, Kage and I exchanged apprehensive glances.

"A nanny," My father exclaims after we've sat down, pacing the length of our kitchen. "Not a mage, not a baker, not anything important. A nanny?"

Kage and I are silent for a very long time. "From now on, you'll be taught magic," My brother and I exchange confused glances, "I'll be hearing no complaints. You'll learn what your mother knew, then I'll teach you my ways. You'll be healing mages and learn how to form barriers like me, none of this useless bullshit. Am I clear?"

My brother and I nodded. Once my father dismissed us, we bolted to our room. Kage and I slept in the same bed that night, huddled together. We cried softly until we fell asleep.

The next day I woke up in my own bed. On our dresser sat objects that were unfamiliar to me. Close to Kage was a pouch of white stones. Beside me was a blue crystal hung on a silver chain.

For the rest of our weekend, we didn't talk to Akane. We knew she'd told our father of our love for her, he hated it. We stayed in our room, and she brought us our meals.

Father returns a little before midnight. We sit at the kitchen table again. "Kage," He begins with my brother, "These are moonstone runes. Here is a book explaining their uses, I expect you to finish it within the week." The book is very thick, I doubt he'll be able to do it, reading has never been his strong suit.

"Kaida," Now my father has his cold eyes set on me. I look down at my hands, "You are holding a sodalite pendulum. Ask it questions, and you will have your answers."

We were sent back to our rooms. At least Kage got his own book, despite not being at the reading level to actually comprehend most of the book. I only had my father's cryptic instructions. 

We spent the week learning how to use the magic tools. Kage got a hang of it easily. "How will my day go?" He asks then plucks a stone from the pouch. Kage pulls out the rune Gebo, meaning gift. Later in our day, he meets a very pretty girl named Mirajane. 

It turns out, the girl is only a year younger than us. We continue being friends for two years. That's exactly how long it took me to understand how to use my pendulum. When my father asked, I'd move my hand a little to make it move in whatever direction he pleased without him noticing.

The night I got my pendulum to work, I'm only eight. I sit holding it away from me, staring at its unmoving form sadly. "Go on, then, move," I tell it, and Kage watches from afar, mostly in pity. "How did mom do this? It's hopeless,"

"Hey, don't worry," Kage reassures, "You'll get the hang of it. It's only a matter of time."

"I hate this," I emphasize, "It feels like you cheated."

"Hey, I did not!" He laughs despite the accusation, "Hey, look, it's moving a little bit."

When I look down, the pendulum is swinging diagonally. Once I've actually put my full attention into it, it's swinging madly in the direction of the door. "I never asked it a question," I say, "What do we do, follow it?"

"Sounds fun," Kage states, "Akane went home a while ago. Let's follow it before dad comes home,"

So we did. The pendulum lead us nearby, down a street and nearing another. In front of us loomed a bar. We followed the pendulum into an alley and through a door. We entered a back room where there were several women who weren't decently dressed. With red faces, Kage and I rushed into the next room. We hovered near the door, hoping that no one would see us as we stared down at my pendulum. The music blared in my ears and gave me a headache. Across the room, my pendulum pointed at my father. His lips were locked with a woman who looked an awful lot like Akane.


End file.
